


What Really Happened in the Second Most Beautiful Garden in All of Time and Space

by LapfulofMisha



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Whouffaldi - Fandom, whouffle - Fandom
Genre: A little angst, A little kissing, Did I Mention Fluff, F/M, Fluff, More Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 18:22:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5385809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapfulofMisha/pseuds/LapfulofMisha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the first minute of Face the Raven. How Clara actually saved the Doctor from having to marry the giant sentient plant thing. Also Clara and the Doctor wandering around in the Second Most Beautiful Garden in All of Time and Space being sweet and cute and adorable with each other. And the phone call never happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Really Happened in the Second Most Beautiful Garden in All of Time and Space

The Doctor and Clara walked through the fantastic garden on an uneven path made of stones cut from diamonds. Never before had Clara seen so many _colors_. Every color of the rainbow and beyond; colors she’d never even seen before; colors she couldn’t put names to. They all swayed and swirled and danced around her. Exotic alien plants not only covered the ground, they floated in the air above them, singing and glittering, filling the sky like surreal half-remembered dreams.

“You’re doing that thing again, that thing with your eyes and their impossible wideness,” admonished the Doctor.

Clara smiled. She knew how much he delighted in her wonder, her excitement, and her utter thrill at seeing the incredible things that no other human had ever witnessed.

“Are you even seeing this?” she teased him. “Are you seeing any of this? For instance, that flower, right over there?”

She took his hand and led him to a giant purple sphere, spinning counterclockwise, in a pile of leaves and vines, spitting out golden sparks like fireworks.

“That,” Clara said softly. “ _That_ is truly amazing.”

“We are in the second most beautiful garden in all of time and space. What do you expect?” His warm smile filled corners of her heart she hadn’t even known existed before. “Of course, _the_ most beautiful garden in time and space is far more amazing, but highly toxic to humans, I’m afraid.”

She ignored him. Her attention was drawn to a glowing, fluorescent snake-like creature that appeared to be dancing on a pile of flower petals.

“Ooh yes,” the Doctor said, following her eyes to the spectacle. “Laeta Fiela mating ritual. Watch what happens next.”

He moved closer to her and put his arm around her, guiding her softly closer to the incredible scene unfolding before them. She marveled at the ease with which he touched her, after all the awkwardness between them after his regeneration. But her attention quickly reverted to the snake-worm that was gyrating, faster and faster, until it became a blur. She gasped as a hole opened in the air out of nothingness, and a green and silver snake pushed through from the other side. It landed in the pile of flower petals with the other snake-worm, and the hole closed immediately behind it.

“What just happened?” Clara breathed.

“Males and females are separated from each other by a barrier in the fabric of reality,” he whispered. “The male opens a portal and brings the female through.”

“That’s magical,” Clara murmured, turning her head to look up at the Doctor. “Ripping a hole through the Universe for love. Wait till poets on Earth get a hold of _that_ information.”

Clara looked up at him, struck again by the sheer _immensity_ of him, so brilliant and timeless and vast, yet so in need of her constant companionship. So in need of her friendship. Suddenly she was overcome with longing. How she wished she could be a time lord too, could be with him always, could spend eternity with him sailing across the universe.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked. His voice was soft but his eyes were confused. “All the amazing wonders of this place and you’re looking at _me_. It makes no sense.”

“It makes perfect sense,” she responded. Slowly she reached up and touched his face, letting her fingers trail softly down his cheek, tracing the lines on his face. Her fingers ended up on his lips, softly outlining them as she gazed into his unfathomable eyes. His normally expressive face was unreadable. She thought of how he used to flinch when she touched him, and what his reaction would have been two years ago if she had dared to touch him like this.

“We’ve come a long way, you and I,” she said softly.

“Yes, we’re light years from Earth right now.”

“Daft old man, you know that’s not what I mean.” She almost had her courage worked up to kiss him, when he grabbed her hand somewhat nervously and started dragging her off in another direction.

“Come over here,” he said, somewhat awkwardly. “I want you to see this. Sentient plants. I’ve never tried to talk to one before, but maybe we can get them to communicate with us.”

“Doctor – “

“Come on, Clara!”

His smile was infectious, and she allowed herself to be dragged over to a group of giant plants that looked sort of like trees, except that instead of branches, they had tentacles, like dozens of skinny arms.

Clara bit her lip, suddenly full of doubt. Maybe he didn’t want her. She had been so sure he felt the same way she did. He was her whole entire world now.  She wanted to be with him all the time; every second they were apart felt like an eternity. And the way he looked at her sometimes, with such longing, she couldn’t have misread him that badly, could’ve she?

The Doctor walked up to the plant and stroked its trunk. He reached up and felt along the arms of the creature, talking softly to it the whole time. Suddenly the thing wrapped one of its arm-tentacles around his head.

“Doctor!” Clara cried out in alarm.

“It’s alright, she’s talking to me telepathically.” He stood perfectly still, as if having giant sentient plant tentacles wrapped around him was an ordinary occurrence.

Clara sighed. It probably was.

“What’s it saying?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

“Uh, um. Oh. _Oh._ Apparently I shouldn’t have, uh, touched her.”

 _Now_ he seemed a bit rattled.

“Doctor, what’s going on? Are we in trouble?” Clara asked cautiously.

He reached up, apparently trying to dislodge the plant’s arm from his head. “It would seem that since I stroked her trunk, she thinks I am attracted to her. She wants me to marry her.”

Clara started laughing. She couldn’t help it. The idea of the Doctor married to a giant plant. And how would he get it into the Tardis? Maybe it could sit in a pot by the console. The mental image of _that_ made her laugh even harder.

“This is really not a laughing matter, Clara. Serena is reluctant to let me go.”

“Serena?” Clara nearly doubled over, she was laughing so hard. “Its name is Serena?”

“Clara! I need to convince _Serena_ that I really don’t want to marry her! I’ve tried to explain to her that I’m not – not the marrying type. But she doesn’t accept that.”

“All right. All right.” Clara thought as hard as she could under the ridiculous circumstances. Finally, swishing her hair back, she marched up to the plant.

Serena. Seriously?

“All right, _Serena._ The Doctor is not going to marry you. It would never work. You’re not even the same species.” She ignored the twinge of pain she felt at her own words, knowing the same thing was true for her and the Doctor.

She looked over at him. “Did my words have any effect? Can she understand me?”

“Uh, yes. She has assured me that she is _malleable_ and able to conform to any species.” He looked at her with the same horrified look he had after Missy kissed him in the nethersphere.

Clara’s eyes grew larger. “Oh, my. I think I’d pay money to see that.”

“Clara!” He pointed to the tentacle around his head. “Do something! But don’t upset it. Don’t make it mad.”

“All right, all right. This is totally going to work,” she said confidently, mostly to convince herself, then turned back to the plant thing.

“So here’s the thing,” she began, staring at the plant, trying to figure out which part of it she should be talking to. It didn’t exactly have a _face_. She wondered if it was considered attractive for its species and almost dissolved into another fit of laughter.

“Here’s the thing,” she repeated, thinking quickly, trying to decide how to extricate the doctor without injuring the damned _plant_. “The Doctor, he’s really _not_ the marrying type. Between you and me, he’s a little bit odd. And, he makes terrible puns. And, there’s already another woman in his life.”

She brightened at this stroke of genius, although she wasn’t sure the Tardis actually qualified as a woman, even though she was female.

“Ah. Now we’re getting somewhere. Serena thinks you and I are together.” He met her eyes briefly then looked back to the plant. “Keep talking.”

“Oh, uh, that’s not what I, oh. Okay.” Taking a deep breath, she changed tactics. “So yeah, the Doctor and I, we go way back. I, um, Oi!” She leaned in toward the plant as if telling it a secret, and said, “I’ve even seen him naked! Well, not in this body. I mean.” She shook her head, knowing how ridiculous she sounded, and was astonished to see the Doctor _blushing_.

He cleared his throat and said quietly, “She doesn’t believe you. She, uh, wants you to prove it. She wants you to, well, the best way I can translate it is, she wants you to be affectionate with me.”

Clara tilted her head and looked at him. “Is that what _you_ want?”

“Only if you do,” he said, his eyes looking hopeful and afraid at the same time, as if she wouldn’t want to, as if she hadn’t _just tried_ to kiss him. Seriously, did he not get it? Was he so bad at reading human emotions that he didn’t realize what she had wanted?

She took a step toward him, wrapping him up in her arms, and leaning up on her tiptoes, she kissed him. It was closed-mouth and gentle, and one-sided at first, but after the briefest of seconds, he closed his eyes and kissed her back. She reached up, over the tentacle, and put her fingers gently into his soft, silver curls, wrapping her lips and tongue around his top lip. He tasted so _good_. She had wondered for so long what this would be like, and it was so much better than she’d ever dreamed. So much better than Jane Austen. She slipped her tongue up to the roof of his mouth. The heat from his body, the softness of his lips, the urgency of his kisses . . . and then they were both flung to the ground by angry tentacles.

“Clara, we need to get back to the Tardis. Right now.”

“Is it – she – is she angry?”

The Doctor gave her one of his not-really-a-grin grins. “A little. Apparently marriage is a big deal to them.” He helped her up. “Run!” he instructed.

The plant reached out and grabbed at them. A horrific rumbling sound came from the ground around it, and the other plants joined in. Clara and the Doctor were suddenly surrounded by tentacles, and the ends of the tentacles opened up to reveal teeth. They looked like Venus Fly Traps, and suddenly they were everywhere.

“Oh my God!” Clara squealed. She jumped over the tentacles and over the side of a flowering bush to safety. The Doctor followed her, and they escaped back to the Tardis.

Clara giggled helplessly as she ran into the Tardis. “I told you it would work!”

“It very nearly ate you for dinner!” he chided.

“Oh admit it. I totally saved your life!” She laughed as she danced around the console.

“It wasn’t going to eat _me_.”

“Admit it. I totally saved you from having to marry that giant sentient plant thing. That bit, when I jumped over the side, that was amazing.”

Shyly, he smiled at her, saying nothing.

“Ha! Knew you were impressed,” she said smugly.

“The second most beautiful garden in all of time and space, and we can never go back there, because you, Miss Oswald, were over-enthusiastic with your … _affection_ , and offended an entire race of sentient plants!”

He turned toward the console and started pressing buttons. He pulled down the handle and the familiar Tardis noises started up.

“What about you?” she asked, walking over and putting her arms around him. “Were you offended?”

He leaned back against her. “Well, let’s just say, you can offend me any time you want.”

She rested her head on his shoulder, smiling, happy to be home.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly this is the first f/m fan fiction I've ever written, and the first time I've done Whouffaldi/Whouffle. So I'd love to know what you think? Thanks for reading!


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